Question: A real number $a$ is chosen randomly and uniformly from the interval $[-20, 18]$. Find the probability that the roots of the polynomial
\[x^4 + 2ax^3 + (2a - 2)x^2 + (-4a + 3)x - 2\]are all real.
Let $p(x)$ be the given polynomial. Notice that \[p(1) = 1 + (2a) + (2a-2) - (4a+3) - 2 = 0,\]so $1$ is a root of $p(x).$ Performing polynomial division, we then have \[p(x) = (x-1)(x^3+(2a+1)x^2+(4a-1)x+2).\]Notice that \[p(-2) = 1 \cdot (-8 + 4(2a+1) - 2(4a-1) + 2) = 0,\]so $-2$ is a root of $p(x)$ as well. Dividing the cubic term by $x+2,$ we then have \[p(x) = (x-1)(x+2)(x^2+(2a-1)x+1).\]Therefore, we want to find the probability that the roots of $x^2 + (2a-1)x + 1$ are all real. This occurs if and only if the discriminant is nonnegative: \[(2a-1)^2 - 4 \ge 0,\]or $(2a-1)^2 \ge 4.$ Thus, either $2a-1 \ge 2$ or $2a-1 \le -2.$ The first inequality is equivalent to $a \ge \tfrac{3}{2},$ and the second is equivalent to $a \le -\tfrac{1}{2}.$ This shows that all values of $a$ except those in the interval $\left(-\tfrac12, \tfrac32\right)$ satisfy the condition. This interval has length $2,$ and the given interval $[-20, 18],$ which contains it completely, has length $18 - (-20) = 38,$ so the probability is \[1 - \frac{2}{38} = \boxed{\frac{18}{19}}.\]